Stamps - Guide To Stamp Collecting

Fakes and Forgeries

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Detecting questionable issues is one of the chief task of the true student of philately. Some collectors handling rarities go to the extent of having a well equipped laboratory with chemicals, measuring instruments, and a quartz lamp using ultraviolet rays to analyze materials and do other detective work to expose forgeries.

Some collectors have so-called rogues' gallery collection. Any time they get one of these worthless specimens they add it to this collection for comparative purposes. However, wide distribution of these is not to be encouraged. Questionable stamps should be directed for attention and study to well-intentioned collectors or to stamp societies such as the American Philatelic Society of American Stamp Dealers Association.

Fakes
A stamp may be altered, changed, or treated so as to represent a more valuable variety. This may be done by cutting away perforations in order to pass the speciemen of as part perforated. Colors may also be changed by exposure or the use of chemicals, and grills and cancellations may be removed or repairs made.

The chemical removal of cancellations constitutes fraud if it is done to sell stamps as unused or to use them as postage.

Counterfeits and Forgeries
Thes are privately printed for the sole purpose of imitating stamps to defraud the government or stamp collectors. However, where the fraud is directed against collectors, the forgeries may extend to the imitation of overprints and surcharges. Naturally, these would be confined to the more expensive varieties.

Counterfeits and forgeries were more commmon in the early days of philately. Today, questionable material is exposed by the philatelic press, stamp societies, and other agencies. Old collections should be scrutinized for counterfeits and forgeries. No matter how skillful or perfect a forgery, there will be some difference in the printing, color, paper, gum, or perforations which an experienced philatelist will be able to notice.

Spurious Issues
This applies to stamps deliberately manufactured or changed to defraud collectors, including counterfeits and forgeries.

Album Weeds
Stamps of spurious origin--fakes, counterfeits, forgeries, bogus stamps, speculative reprints, and others of questionable nature--should be removed from a stamp album just as a gardener removes weeds from the ground.

Classifying Stamps

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As with other things in our age of specialization, postage stamps are issued for various distinct services. Of course, the overwhelming majority of stamps are still printed for ordinary use. The post office also offers various others services: mail can be expedited by special delivery, registered, insured, certified, and a receipt acquired.

For those various extra services, special stamps have been issued, such as stamps for parcel post and collection of postage due.

Ordinary Postage Stamp Issues
More commonly known as definitive or regular stamps. This refers to series of stamps for general and all-purpose postal use. To this group belong the overwhelming majority of adhesive stamps. These are distinguished from commemorative or other stamps of special or limited use.

Semi-postal Issues
Part of all the receipts from these stamps are given to some charitable cause, public welfare, or other relief fund. One some of these stamps are printed the amount for postage in addition to a surtax for the fund. The totla of both is the price of the stamp.

Airpost Stamps
These stamps are issued for air mail only.

Airpost Semi-postal Stamps
Part of the revenue of these airmail stamps is designated for some welfare cause.

Airpost Special Delivery Stamps
Used for the combined airpost and special delivery services.

Pneumatic Postage Stamps
Special stamps for enclosure of mail in cylinders sent through underground tubes by compressed air.

Special Delivery Stamps
These indicate that the sender has paid an extra fee to guarantee that a letter or package will be delivered to its destination immediately upon arrival at the local post office.

Personal Delivery Stamps
These insure delivery the the addressee only.

Authorized Delivery Stamps
For an extra charge represented by the use of such as stamp, mail may be delivered by special private post, instead of through regular post office channels.

Registration Stamps
These provided for a receipt and compensation in case of loss.

Insured Letter Stamp
Allows indemnity up to the amount insured on mail covered by these special stamps.

Certified Mail Stamp
The purpose of this stamp was to verify the mailing and delivery of a piece of mail. It did not provide compensation in case of loss.

Postage-due Stamps
Special stamps affixed by the post office on mail having insufficient postage.

Military Postage Stamps
Issued during a war for use by the armed forces.

War Tax Stamps
In addition to the regular postal rate, during wartime an extra amount often is added as a surtax to help defray war costs.

Occupation Stamps
For use by a country within the occupied part of enemy territory.

Officail Postage Stamps
These stamps are for general official mail.

Newspaper Stamps
Used for postage on single or bulk shipments of newspapers.

Newspaper Tax Stamps
Used as a tax on the importation of foreign newspapers.

Parcel Post Stamps
For use on parcels only.

Special Handling Stamps
Affixing these stamps to a parcel will afford it the same service as first class mail.

Parcel Postage-due Stamps
For use only on parcel-post mail to indicate the amount to be collected on account of insufficient postage.

Postal Tax Stamp
Not valid for postage but generally used as a tax to raise funds for certain welfare on other purposes.

Speculative Issues
There are stamps whose object is more for sale to stamp collectors that to postal duty.

Caring For Your Collection

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To keep your stamps in good condition, it is important to learn how to handle and store them correctly. With the proper tools and handling techniques, your collection will remain preserved and protected for years to come.

Useful Tools For Collectors

A serious stamp collector's laboratory includes some or all of these accessories: stamp tongs, a magnifying glass, a stock book, a perforation gauge, and a variety of reference books.

Stamp tongs
(tweezers specially made for the handling of stamps). By handling stamps with tongs, the collector keeps from damaging the collectibles.

Albums
Basic albums that have illustrated spaces for worldwide stamps, U.S. stamps, topicals (animals, railroads, Olympics, etc.) and types of stamps like plate blocks and coils.

Perforation Gauge
The perforations between stamps on a sheet not only aid one in separating them, but these perforations also come in different types and sizes---and determining them aids one in identifying which stamp is which. Sometimes two or more stamps may look alike, but each may have a different perforation type and/or size.

Magnifying Glass
A magnifier that allows one to more closely examine not only a stamp's features, but also its condition.

Stockbook
In some ways similar to albums, except that these are simple storage devices where stamps can be placed in clear pockets on pages for easy sorting and viewing.

Mounts
Hinges or safe vinyl stamp mounts that are used to mount stamps into the albums.

Identifying Stamps

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The first step in the study of postage stamps is to determine their origin. This is usually very simple, as the names of countries are generally printed right on the stamps.

Some name of countries may be a little different from their English names, but there usually will be enough similarity to leave no doubt as to the identity. For example, Nederland is the Netherlands, and Danmark is Denmark.

Some countries are known by two or more names. For example, the names Ireland, Eire, and Irish Free State all refer to the same country. Where no name appears on a stamp there may be other languages which may lead to its identity, such as inscriptions, overprints, currency, or abbreviations.

The Rarest Stamps of All

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As a collector you may be interested in knowing of those stamps which because of age, size, scarcity, or printing errors, have come to be classifed as the world's rarest stamps. These stamps stand out in philately as possessing characteristics unlike any others.

The Oldest
Great Britain: May 6, 1840
Zurich, Canton of (Switzerland): March 1, 1843
Brazil: July 1, 1843
Geneva, Canton of (Switzerland): October 1, 1843
Basle, Canton of (Switzerland): Jult 1, 1845
United States: July 1, 1847

The Largest
China; Special delivery stamp; 1905-1912 Issue; in four parts; 8 x 2 1/2 inches
China; Special delivery stamp; 1913-1914 Issue; in four parts; 7 x 2 3/4 inches

The Smallest
Germany; Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 1856, 3/8 inches square
Germany; Brunswick, 1857, 3/8 inches square

The Highest Denominations
Germany; inflation issue of 1923; 50,000,000,000 marks
United States; tax stamp of 1950, Distilled Spirits; $50,000

The Most Valuable
The most valuable stamp in the world is the British Guiana, 1856 1 cent magenta. Auctioned in 1980 for $935,000, this stamp, along with the Mauritius 1847 and Hawaiian missonary stamp, commanded the highest prices in philately.

The First Official Postage Stamp

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Great Britain issued the first official postage stamp in 1840. This did not represent the invention of the postal system, but it was a major improvement over the prior era of stampless covers (folded letters).

Before adhesive stamps were first used in 1840, the sender usually folded the letter so that it formed both the message and the wrapper. There was usually a wax sealon the back. If an envelope was used it was usually handmade. These so-called stampless covers were sent collect with rates determined by distance and weight. When letters were refused, the government had no means of exacting payment.

It was Sir Rowland Hill, father of the modern postal system, who originated low postal rates and reforms in the postal system of Great Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria. He reduced the distance rate on ordinary letters from one shilling to one penny, payable in advance. This rate of postage was determined by weight and not by distance.

In 1840, Rowland Hill introduced in Great Britain the first adhesive postage stamp. This was the one-penny black, which came out simultaneously with the next denomination, the two-penny blue. Both were imperforated, and the stamps had to be cut apart by scissors or other means. Hill also commissioned William Mulready of the Royal Academy of Art to design a stamped envelope. This mulready envelope and the first two adhesive stamps went into use in England on May 6, 1840.

The two stamps met with tremendous succes. The public bought them at not only for postal use but out of admiration, and for their value as souvenirs. However, the Mulready envelope, although of eleborate and artistic design, was received with ridicule. Caricatures appeared in the press and leading periodicals. The result was that most of these Mulready covers were withdrawn and destroyed by the post office. Both the original covers and caricatures are now highly prized by collectors.

Early Postal Systems

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Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night can stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

This slogan, whicj adorns the facade of the general post office in New York City, was coined in 485 B.C. by Herodotus, the Greek traveler and historian, in his admiration of the post systems of the persians.

Postal systems go back thousands of years, even perhaps to about 3,500 B.C., when the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia developed the cuneiform system of writing impressed on stone, clay, brick, and tablets. Such messages have been unearthed by axcavations of their ruins and of their successors, the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Persians.

For centuires the old posts served only royalty, the nobility, and the church. They were also used for war communications, matters of state, and urgency. In time this service was exteneded to businesses, important merchants, and favorites of the court and universities. It was not available to the average citizen. Of course, few people in those times knew how to read or write. By progressive stages, messages were first written on stone and clay tablets, then on papyrus, wax, and parhment, and eventually on paper.